Song of deliverance
15
📚Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying:“I will sing to the LORD,
for he has triumphed
gloriously.
The horse and his rider
he has thrown into the sea.
2 📚The LORD is my strength
and song,
and he has become
my salvation.
He is my God,
and I will glorify him,
my father’s God,
and I will exalt him.
3 📚The LORD is a warrior 📖.
The LORD is his name.
4 📚Pharaoh’s chariots
and his army
he has thrown into the sea.
His chosen officers also
are drowned
in the Red sea.
5 📚The depths covered them.
They sank to the bottom
like a stone.
6 📚Your right hand 📖, O LORD,
was glorious in power.
Your right hand, O LORD,
dashed the enemy in pieces.
7 📚And in the greatness
of your excellence
you overthrew those
who rose up against you.
You sent out your wrath,
and it consumed them
like stubble.
8 📚And with the blast of
your nostrils the waters
gathered together,
the floods stood upright
like a heap,
and the depths congealed
in the heart of the sea.
9 📚“The enemy said,
‘I will pursue,
I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil,
my desire will be satisfied
on them.
I will draw my sword,
my hand will destroy them.’
10 📚“You blew with your wind,
the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
in the mighty waters.
11 📚“Who is like you,
O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like you 📖,
glorious in holiness 📖,
awe-inspiring in praises,
doing wonders 📖?
12 📚You stretched out
your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.
13 📚In your mercy 📖 you
led out the people
whom you redeemed.
You will guide them
in your strength to your
holy dwelling 📖 place.
14 📚The peoples 📖 will hear
and be afraid.
Sorrow will take hold of the
inhabitants of Philistia.
15 📚Then the chiefs of Edom
will be amazed.
The mighty men of Moab
will be seized
with trembling.
All the inhabitants of Canaan
will melt away.
16 📚Fear and dread will fall
on them.
By the greatness of your arm
they will be as still as a stone,
until your people pass over,
O LORD, until the people whom
you have bought 📖 pass over.
17 📚You will bring them in,
and plant them in the
mountain of your inheritance;
in the place, O LORD,
which you have made
for you to live in,
in the Sanctuary,
O Lord, which your hands
have established.
18 📚The LORD will reign
for ever and ever”.
19 📚For the horse of Pharaoh along with his chariots and his horsemen 📖 went into the sea, and the LORD brought the waters of the sea back on them; but the children of Israel went on dry ground in the middle of the sea. 20 📚And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing.
21 📚And Miriam answered them,
“Sing to the LORD,
for he has triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider
he has thrown into the sea”.
The waters of Marah and Elim
22 📚So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the desert of Shur, and went three days in the desert and found no water. 23 📚And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24 📚And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What will we drink?”
15:22-24 Ps 77:20; 78:52-53. Evidently there was a spring at Marah. The Hebrew word “marah” means bitter. This was the first test of Israel after the mighty display of God’s power and love at the Red Sea. Through Moses He Himself led them to Marah. They pathetically failed the test and began to grumble – not for the first or last time (Ex 14:11; 16:2; Num 14:2; 16:41; Ps 106:13; 1 Cor 10:10-11). They were always speaking to Moses instead of to God. When our supplies fail to whom do we speak? Does our faith in God fail with our failing supplies?⚜
25 📚 And he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he threw it into the water, the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them 📖,
26 📚And said, “If 📖 you carefully listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his decrees, I will put none of these diseases on you, which I brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you 📖”.
27 📚And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm trees; and they camped there by the waters.
15:27 God gives rest and refreshment after difficulties (Ps 23:2; 66:10-12; Mark 6:31; Rev 7:17). The journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan is full of instruction and warning for us today (Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:1-13). In some respects it is similar to the journey of Christ’s believers through life from this evil world, from which they have been rescued, to heaven (note at Num 14:45; 20:12; Deut 1:19; Gal 1:4). In these chapters describing Israel’s journey we can see the weakness, depravity and instability of those people (and of ourselves, for by nature we are no better than they. If God has enlightened us and shown us what we truly are by nature, we can see our own portrait in these chapters). We also can see God’s goodness, love and power displayed on their behalf and also God’s holiness and anger against sin. We can assume by all this that great difficulties and testings are inevitable for God’s people in every age.⚜